Method of handling sheets.



HENRY A. MALEY, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

METHOD OF HANDLING SHEETS.

Original application filed June 17, 1913, Serial No. 774,225.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 27, 1914. Divided and this application filed August 18,

1913. Serial No. 785,251.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, HENRY A. MALnY, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Handling Sheets, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a method of handling sheets, and is a division of my copending application 774,225, filed June 17,

In the printing of books it is customary to print on large sheets a plurality of pages, sometimes thirty-two, at one time, and to thereafter fold and out these large sheets into sheets of the desired size for a book. In following this method of procedure, the large sheets must first be passed through a printing machine and then through a folding and cutting machine. The large sheets usually have some irregularity either in size, angles of the edges, crookedness of the edges, or torn edges, any one of which irregularities has hitherto prevented the desired register of the sheets relatively to the folding and cutting machine. The folding and cutting of printed sheets according to the method hitherto followed has resulted in leaving the printed matter elsewhere than in the desired location relatively to the book page. The method which forms the subject-matter of this application avoids the above-mentioned undesirable result by registering the large printed sheets exclusively by the same points in the folding and cutting machine as in the printing machine. Whatever irregularity the sheet possesses will have the same effect in locating the printed matter on the sheet as in determining the location of the folds and cuts whereby the sheet is divided after it is printed, to the end that the printed matter will ultimately occupy the desired location on the book pages.

Of the accompanying drawings, which illustrate my improved method somewhat conventionally :-Figure 1 represents a top plan view of a large sheet in coactive engagement with the guides and registering device of a printing machine. Fig. 2 represents a similar view of the same sheet in similar coactive relation to the guides and registering device of a folding and cutting machine. Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic representation, in elevation, of those elements of the folding and cutting machine which are necessary to show in what manner the sheet is handled. Fig. 4 represents a top plan view of a sheet which has been folded twice, the sheet being shown in cooperative relation to the mechanism shown at the extreme left of Fig. 3.

The same reference characters indicate the same parts wherever they occur.

In Fig. 1, a relatively large sheet is indicated at 10. The front guides of a printing machine are indicated conventionally at 11, and a side guide is indicated conventionally at 12. These front and side guides are formed to have limited point contact with the sheet. For present purposes it is not necessary to show or describe the actual structural details of the guides, their location and their limited point contact with the sheet being the important things concerning them. The sheet may be carried by any suitable means, such as endless bands 13, in the direction of the arrow, whereby its front edge is placed against the front guides 11. The side guide 12 is then actuated according to the usual well-known method to engage the side edge of the sheet and move the sheet laterally to the desired position. During the operation of the side guide 12 the front edge of the sheet is kept in contact with the front guides by the continuously driven bands 13. Although the drawing does not show a printing cylinder or other elements of a printing machine, it is to be understood that the purpose of the machine elements included in Fig. 1'is to register the sheet with relation to a printing cylinder or other means by which the sheet is carried into engagement with the printing elements.

Dotted line 41, extending across the sheet substantially half way between the front and rear edges, indicates the line on which the sheet after being printed will receive its first fold; dotted line 00. substantially half way between the front edge and line a. indicates the line on which the sheet will receive its second fold; and dotted line to indicates the other line on which the sheet will be folded by the second folding operation. So far as my improved method is concerned, the side guide 12 might be arranged to engage the side edge of the sheet at line 00 instead of line as without any material change in the method of handling the sheet,

as will be more clearly understood after further description.

Referring now to Fig. 2, the same sheet 10 is shown in cooperative engagement with front guides 14 and a side guide 15 of a folding and cutting machine. In this figure the lines a, w and m on which the sheet is to be folded are indicated as in Fig. 1. The direction of feed by which the sheet is carried against front guides 14 is again indicated by an arrow, and suitable feeding bands are indicated at 16. The front guides lat and side guide 15 are adjusted in precisely the same relation as the corresponding guides of the printing machine, as shown by Fig. 1, and the side guide 15 is actuated to register the sheet laterally with the same effect as the side guide 12, to the end that the sheet will be engaged at precisely the same points by the devices 14: and 15- as by the devices 11 and 12. If, therefore, the position of the sheet in the printing machine is influenced by any irregularity or irregularities in the sheet, it will be influenced in precisely the same manner with relation to the folding and cutting machine, so that the desired relation of the folds and cuts relatively to the printed matter on the sheet will be insured.

Fig. 3 shows the sheet in edge elevation in the same relative position as that shown by Fig. 2. A folding device is indicated at 17 in Fig. 3. This folding device is arranged to engage the sheet on line a to make the first fold on that line. This first folding operation is caused by moving the folding device downwardly, whereby the transverse central part of the sheet is doubled and carried between cooperative creasing rolls 18 which are continuously driven in a direction which draws the sheet downwardly. The now creased front or lower edge of the sheet engages a deflector 19 by which the direction of movement is changed from a downward course to a horizontal course from right to left, and the sheet is fed by the creasing rolls18 into cooperative engagement with supporting and feeding bands 20. These bands, in conjunction with driven bands 21, carry the now folded sheet into engagement with a front guide 22 which may for convenience be a continuous transverse bar. The element 22 does not have to be restricted to two-point contact with the creased front edge of the sheet, because the crease is not subject to irregularities but will naturally be straight and at right angles to the direction of the feed, the lower edge of the folding device 17 being presumably straight and at right angles to the direction of feed.

The lines w and w are brought together by the first folding operation, and the sheet receives its second fold on these lines in consequence of the operation of a second folding device indicated at 23. The arrangement and operation of this folding device is similar to the operation and arrangement of the folding device 17. The folding device 17 depresses the twice-folded sheet between cooperative creasing rolls 2t which feed the sheet against a deflector 25. This deflector again changes the direction of the sheet from a downward course to a horizontal course from right to left, and the sheet advances and rests upon feeding bands 26 by which its folded front edge is carried against a front guide 27. At this stage the lines as and m coincide with each other and are at the front of the sheet, and while the front edge is against the front guides 27 the sheet is registered laterally by a side guide 28. The side guide is formed to have point contact with the sheet and is so arranged that it will engage the sheet at the front corner, which is the point previously engaged by the side guides 12 and 15. The front guides 27 and side guide 28 register the sheet with reference to suitable instrumentalities which further operate upon the sheet.

Fig. 3 includes cooperative shears or cutters 29 and 30 between which the folded sheet is carried by the bands 26. After the sheet has been registered with relation to these cutters, the upper cutters 29 are moved downwardly whereby they are caused to cooperate with the cutters 30 to divide the sheet into smaller sheets. While the sheet is in the position last described, it may be folded on lines Z) to form the creases which are ultimately arranged at the back of the book and by which the pages are held in the book cover.

The essential features of the method are, first, limiting the contact by the guides 11 and 12 of the printing machine to point contact; second, duplicating the aforesaid point contact in the matter of location in the folding and cutting machine; third, using for the contact point of the side edge a point in line with one of the folds to be subsequently imparted to the sheet; and, fourth, using this same point of contact with the side edge to determine the final side register of the sheet.

I claim:

1. The method of handling a paper sheet or the like, which consists in registering said sheet by a plurality of marginal points, operating upon said sheet as so registered, again registering said sheet by the aforesaid points, and folding the sheet on a line intersecting one of said points.

2. The method of handling a paper sheet, which consists in registering the sheet by a point on one marginal edge of the sheet, and by two points of another marginal edge of the sheet, printing or otherwise marking upon the sheet registered as aforesaid,

registering the printed or otherwise marked sheet a second time by the aforesaid points, and folding the sheet on a line intersecting one of said points.

3. The method of handling a paper sheet, which consists in registering the sheet by three points two of which are on one edge of the sheet and the third on an edge which meets said one edge at an angle, printing or otherwise marking upon the sheet registered as aforesaid, registering the printed or otherwise marked sheet by said three points, and folding the printed or otherwise marked sheet on a line intersecting said third point.

4- The method of handling a paper sheet, which consists in registering the sheet by a point on one edge of the sheet, printing or otherwise marking the sheet registered as aforesaid, registering the printed or otherwise marked sheet by said point, folding the sheet on a line intersecting said point, registering the folded sheet by said point, and further operating upon the sheet as last registered.

5. The method of handling a paper sheet, which consists in registerin the sheet by a point on one ed e of the s eet, operating upon the sheet registered as aforesaid, registering the sheet a second time by said point, folding the sheet as registered the second time, registering the folded sheet by said point, and operating upon the folded sheet as last registered.

6. The method of handling a paper sheet, which consists in registering the sheet by a point on one edge of the sheet, operating upon the sheet registered as aforesaid, registering the sheet a second time by said point, folding the sheet on a line intersecting said point, registering the folded sheet by said point, and operating upon the folded sheet as last registered.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature, in presence of two witnesses.

HENRY A. MALEY.

Witnesses:

WALTER P. ABELL, P. W. PEZZETTI.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

